Get Creative!

Explore favourite colours, and stories that will fire up your little one鈥檚 imagination and allow them to respond. Alongside interactive stories are fun, imaginative learning activities focused on art and design.

Curriculum Background

This pathway is designed to help your child explore expressive arts and design, another of the 鈥榮pecific鈥� areas of the Early Years Curriculum. It’s听all about getting your child to be creative, thinking about art, patterns and colours, and using their imagination.

The learning in this Pathway feeds into lots of areas of the school curriculum, most obviously art but also music, drama and design. Interestingly, the creative learning also builds your child鈥檚 mathematical understanding 鈥� thinking about patterns is a key part of the way in which maths helps us make sense of our world.

What鈥檚 in the pathway?

• There are six books to read, listen to and talk about:

1. 1. The first book is on 鈥淐olours鈥�, to support your child in learning some colour names. Encourage your child to think about which colours are their favourites. Spot colours around the home with your child, for instance talking about the colour of your child鈥檚 favourite clothes.
   2. Next is a story about 鈥淟ittle Owl鈥檚 Orange Scarf鈥�, in which little owl wants a scarf in his favourite colours. Again, this offers the chance to think about which colours are your child鈥檚 favourites and why. Link this to your little one鈥檚 emotional development, by talking about how we sometimes link colours to emotions. For instance, red might link to feeling angry or blue to being calm.
   3. The next story is 鈥淭his Book Just Ate My Dog!鈥�, an imaginative tale about how and why things disappear, which ends by asking the reader to solve a puzzle. Support your child to work out the answer to the puzzle, to help them develop creative thinking.
   4. Next, we hear the story of how 鈥淭his Book Belongs to Aye-Aye鈥�, in which Aye-Aye wants to be in a picture book.
   5. This Pathway ends with two longer books, to boost children鈥檚 imagination and creativity. 鈥淭he Woollies: Pirates Ahoy!鈥� is a story about gold coins and pirate treasure, with pirates a favourite theme for children of all ages.
   6. Finally, 鈥淏oris Saves the Show鈥� tells the story of a school drama show. Your child can look forward to taking part in performances at school.

• 听The interactive stories in this Pathway are interspersed with fun and imaginative learning activities, this time focused on art and design. In the activities, your child learns the names of different colours and explores patterns, interacting with the app to create designs of their own. They dance off with characters from the stories, practice their spellings and do some magic painting.

Books from the app

You can buy some of the amazing picture books from the app below, so you can read them offline too. Or, explore some new titles together with our books to foster self expression and creativity!

Activities for you to do at home

• Create musical instruments together, filling empty yoghurt pots or bottles with beans, rice or pasta. Seal the top and shake out a rhythm together with your child. Count the number of beats as you shake your pots. Play a rhythm as you sing a song or nursery rhyme together, shaking along with the beat.
• Try some 鈥榯ransient art鈥� with your child outdoors (temporary art), in a garden if you have one, or in the local park. Gather natural materials, such as fallen leaves, stones and rocks, or fallen petals. Work together to arrange them into interesting shapes and patterns. Talk about the shapes and patterns you make as you create your transient artworks. Take a photo to remember your artwork, and to share with family and friends. You can also create transient art by drawing shapes in sand.
• Make a collage with your child 鈥� this helps build imaginative skills, and supports your child to develop fine motor and scissor skills. Gather a stack of old magazines and decide on a theme (this could be as loose as 鈥榖lue鈥� or as specific as 鈥榙inosaurs鈥�). Help your child to tear or cut out the pictures of their choice.
• Listen to the encouraging creativity episode of our podcast, The Little Pod, below with expert guest Victoria Jones from The Story Museum in Oxford for a host of practical things you can do to help develop your little one鈥檚 creativity and self expression as they get ready to start school and beyond. For more episodes on other topics, check out the full series of听The Little Pod.听

Three years ago, my 8 year old daughter came home from school in tears. Between her sobs, I learned that she had been told that her overzealous use of glue stick meant that her kids would die in 2050. As a climate change communicator for over a decade, I realised how urgently our young people needed more support with the climate emergency.

Over the past few years, climate change has become increasingly prominent, with warnings in the news, school strikes, posters warning of a countdown to extinction鈥� While many UK children, and adults, could until relatively recently hide or be protected from the truth of what we face, this is changing, particularly with increased access to media and smart devices.

Climate anxiety is on the rise, with almost half of young people worldwide in a 2021 survey saying that eco-anxiety negatively impacts their everyday life. Climate education remains largely absent from our schools and children are increasingly seeking answers.

And so, it falls to adults like you and me (parents, carers, teachers, scout leaders鈥�) to think carefully about how we engage our children and have the important conversations which will prepare them to survive and thrive.

It can be hard to do this well, and very easy to cause extra anxiety. So, what have I learnt in the last three years about how we should engage, in a way that is honest, but also safe and empowering?

Start with yourself and put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others.

Psychotherapist Jo McAndrews describes children as our Bluetooth speaker: whatever state we are in, children are likely to pick up on and amplify it. When we are in an ungrounded state, we find it harder to respond to situations in the clear-headed, creative, and sensitive way that a good climate conversation requires. Creating emotional connection with others is key to discussing difficult things, and to be able to connect effectively, we need to be in a calm and grounded state.

Ways to start:

• • Find ways to look after your own emotional wellbeing, get the support you need and 鈥榖uild a village鈥� of supportive others around you. This might be other parents/carers/teachers in your community, or you might look to wider established networks, like .
  • Find good sources of information to have at your fingertips; you will inevitably be asked questions you cannot answer. Check out , a website created by a nonpartisan group of climate scientists and mothers.
  • And importantly, think through what action you want to take yourself to tackle the climate crisis, so you don鈥檛 project your own need to do something onto the young people looking to you for guidance.

If you need professional support, many therapists are aware of eco-anxiety and groups like the offer tailored support.

For under 7s, you don鈥檛 need to mention climate change.

Climate Change is a complex idea. Instead, focus on nurturing young children鈥檚 innate biophilia, encouraging a love of the natural world around them and lay the important groundwork.

Jump in puddles, feed ducks, make rainbows, collect autumn leaves.

Starting tips:

• • Use books and music to introduce, normalise and inspire. Stories don鈥檛 have to be overtly environmental in theme; one of my personal favourites is Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler鈥檚 The Ugly Five, which teaches the intrinsic value of the world鈥檚 less beautiful beasts. In Clean Up!, by Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola, we meet feisty and loveable Rocket as she pulls a community together to clean up the litter-strewn island where her grandparents live.听 For a list of books which feature lead characters from diverse ethnic backgrounds, key to building the inclusive environmental movement of the future, see . Favourite music includes the songs of and anything by Australian 鈥榚cological edutainment鈥� trio, . Make it fun, by having a dance!
  • Lead by example and explain your actions. Small children notice our everyday actions, and we can add to their learning by taking the time to verbalise our intentions. Talk about why you put things in the recycling bin or leave the autumn leaves on the ground in the garden.
  • Start proactively building the skills children will need as they grow up. Build trust, interpersonal skills, emotional literacy. Start with .

For 7-11s, a good message is that 鈥榣ots of adults are working on it, but if you want to help, here are some ideas for how you can鈥�.

As children get older, they are much more likely to start encountering the idea and language of climate change. We cannot protect them from it, but we can accompany them and help them find their own way and build their resilience.

Starting tips:

• • When supporting their learning about the environment, start with what they know already, and build basic knowledge from there.
  • Offer a variety of actions that are relevant to their everyday lives. You can find six areas of action, with accessible and concrete ideas in the . Make sure you also ask THEM for their ideas. They鈥檒l have great ones and be much more engaged if action comes from them.
  • Use the power of stories from all over the world; borrow stories from other struggles of how people overcame great odds. And ask them how they think the story should end. A few books to try include:

1. 1. 1. Dr Mya-Rose Craig鈥檚 We have a dream: 30 stories of young indigenous people and people of colour around the world taking action to protect the planet
      2. Tim Allman & Nick Shepherd鈥檚 Max takes a stand: the accessible and light-hearted fictional tale of Max, who wakes up one morning and realises BIG CHANGE is needed right now
      3. Georgina Stevens鈥檚 Stella and the Seagull: a picture book about one small girl鈥檚 campaign to clean up the beach.

• • Emphasise the importance of talking about how they feel, to enable the processing of emotions, and let them know that all feelings are welcome, however messy, contradictory, and changeable they may be. There are a range of tools you can use to encourage and enable emotional literacy, including emotions cards and 鈥榯he anger iceberg鈥�, and modelling this yourself can really help.
  • Be honest and open. Relationships built on trust are key to building resilience in young people. At the same time, it鈥檚 important to be mindful of what you expose them to and try to keep information to what they need to know.
  • Emphasise it is okay not to have all the answers, and that it is okay if they don鈥檛 want to take action or join the youth strike. Show them how to search for reliable information.

A couple of closing thoughts

It鈥檚 OK to get it wrong. None of us will get it right all the time but taking the time to think about how you engage is a great first step.

Don鈥檛 go it alone. Having a supportive network to draw on, and for any child to draw on, is priceless.

Google is your friend. Keep learning and accept you will not have all the answers.

Good parenting and teaching is activism.听 You do not need to be engaging in any formal climate activism to be doing important work. Building strong and supportive connections matters, and as Jo McAndrews says, just holding a baby is contributing to a better future.

LOOK AFTER YOURSELF. The climate crisis is scary, and this is a hard time to care for children. Any engagement with others will be far more effective if you are looking after your own needs too.

听

In 2019 our son took his GCSEs 鈥� sitting actual exams. Two years later it was his A levels, without exams. In the summer of 2022 our daughter is taking her GCSEs (which are expected to be exams for the first time since 2019). So, from a parent鈥檚 perspective, what has that been like? Clearly every child, and every parent and carer will have different experiences. This blog attempts to encapsulate mine.

I vividly recall our son taking his GCSEs in the summer of 2019. This generation are sitting more exams, occupying more hours, than ever before. It was a daunting prospect for him 鈥� and for us as parents. Vast amounts to revise, practise and memorise. And whilst his at home revision began in the February, the in-school exam preparation started much earlier. So, whilst he was very familiar with the task and its scale, that didn鈥檛 mean that sitting down and revising (and before that planning the revision) was any easier, or any more appealing. Putting off creating the plan, and then putting off actually starting revising, was the first big challenge.

However, he did get into the routine of revising each night 鈥� not necessarily for long, but doing it regularly, and with a plan to cover everything that needed to be condensed and memorised. Ensuring he had the space (in every sense) to revise; managing the inevitable tensions in the house as the exams approached; providing metaphorical stick and carrot; in fact planning our lives around it all, was all part of that 5 months. I probably felt more anxious than he did 鈥� and trying not to convey that was key. With hindsight I shouldn鈥檛 have worried as much 鈥� the school provides a huge amount of guidance, structure and support around revision.

Once the weeks of exams were over, little did he know, they would be the last formal exams he would take at school. Nine months later, his A level studies came to an abrupt halt at the end of March 2020. That period of learning (or not) is well documented, so skipping to the final few months, how could he choose universities to apply for when he couldn鈥檛 visit them? Were the exams on or off? What evidence would the school want for TAGs? How seriously would he take the additional in-school testing? And how, in the end, would he be able to say farewell to his school and friends that he鈥檇 had for so many years? Our role, as parents, again was to listen, support, motivate, cajole, and feed.

But now he is at university and for us as parents it begins again. One term into Year 11, and our daughter is currently taking mocks. Motivating her to do revision has been hard 鈥� she struggles to see the point. She鈥檚 missed so much time in school over the past 22 months; she鈥檚 missed so much normal routine. Maybe she might have felt this way had the pandemic not happened, but it certainly hasn鈥檛 helped. So, we have the same fundamental parental role again: to support her, keep her safe, healthy and motivated. We鈥檙e also ensuring she has fun, and reassuring her that everything will be ok. Drawing from what we learnt with her brother, and making sure she concentrates on herself rather than on any comparisons, will hopefully stand her and us in good stead for the coming months.

Avoid the Christmas holiday slump with our top tips for keeping you and your family active over the festive season.

We鈥檙e probably all familiar with a slump in mood during the Christmas holidays, but did you know Christmas fatigue and the January doldrums are actual real things, driven by hormones? The highs and lows of Christmas preparation, anticipation and participation generate powerful hormones which play an important part in mood and can suppress our immune system. Being tired can affect our confidence, happiness, perspective and ability to focus. Help your children (and yourself) avoid Christmas fatigue and the impending January doldrums to arrive back at school focused and ready for a positive start to the New Year.

This article was first published in 2016 and has been amended to include covid-safe activities.

1. Keep gently busy

• Involve the children in planning, preparing and clearing up after your meals and holiday activities. They鈥檒l feel useful and enjoy working together.
• Ask the kids to organise a family film afternoon 鈥� choose the film, agree a time, arrange the room and prepare snacks.
• Build a fort, rocket or out of discarded packaging.
• Ask the children to pick out a couple of toys and books they no longer use (as they make room for their new presents) and take them to the local charity donation point.
• For more inspiration, take a look at the fun activity ideas on our Christmas activity pages.

2. Have a rest

Don鈥檛 shy away from a quick power nap during the festive season! Even if your children left afternoon naps behind years ago, some quiet time on their beds with a comic, puzzle or book (no screens) can help rebalance energy levels after a string of late nights. Curling up with the kids and a good book can feel like a real treat.

3. Get moving

Even just five minutes outside in the garden, doing the recycling, or feeding the birds each morning can have a positive impact on energy levels. Follow up with 30 minutes gentle exercise (a walk, scavenger hunt or run) later in the day to release those feel-good endorphins that improve your mood.

4. Get out and get exploring

There are lots of free outdoor activities you can do, local tier guidelines permitting. Create a scavenger hunt, take a walk through the park, woods or along the beach. Remember to socially distance from any other people who have had the same idea.
Watch this video for ideas on how to sneak some learning into a family walk.

5. Organise some family fun

• Organise a virtual family quiz, and involve family members you wouldn’t usually get to see at Christmas.
• Have a family game of to inspire creativity and humour.
• Build a reading den, do some baking, or create your own musical instruments and share some music.

6. Other golden rules to avoid fatigue

• Keep hydrated. It can be difficult, but make sure everyone鈥檚 drinking water through the day.
• Get some fresh air 鈥� feed the ducks, challenge each other to a race in the park.
• Eat breakfast. Try to include protein in the form of milk, eggs or yoghurt.
• Keep regular sleep patterns 鈥� try not to let the kids have more than a couple of really late nights in a row.
• Have a really, really good stretch!

More from Oxford Owl

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